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One of my favorite parts of being a blogger is that competitiveness is relatively low. Instead of fighting for one top spot, multiple bloggers can all be at the top together. In fact, helping each other out can really help yourself along the way. So what’s the downside to being a good blogging neighbor? As far as I can tell, there isn’t one. If you’re looking for ideas to help other bloggers, check out of a few of these:

Write winning comments on others’ blogs. One of a blogger’s many goals is inspiring engagement with his or her audience. When you read a blog post by another blogger, leave a helpful comment. What is a “helpful” comment? One that goes beyond “hey, great post.” Give specific feedback, ask questions, or relate to the post in some personal way. Bonus – writing comments on someone else’s blog helps your blog’s SEO and traffic.

Create tutorial posts with blogging advice. Share your wisdom. Don’t worry about giving away your secrets; in blogging, the attitude you should have is not competing with other bloggers, but learning from them and helping them. Telling other bloggers how you organize your schedule, create graphics, and drive traffic will not decrease your success; it can actually increase it, because you will become a blogging authority.

Follow other bloggers on social media, especially with your blogging accounts. Many bloggers believe it is common courtesy to follow back, so you will be growing your fans at the same time.

Share posts from other bloggers on your social media accounts. Doing this will definitely score you brownie points with other bloggers, but it’s also good social media practice: social media experts suggest sharing 20% of your own content and 80% of outside content on your accounts. Moving beyond self-promotion will make your audience happy, your spotlighted bloggers happy, and, in turn, you happy!

Host link parties, guest bloggers, and blog hops as a way of sharing your audience with other bloggers. All three of those methods help grow the traffic, SEO, and audience of other bloggers (as well as yourself). It will also expand the content on your own blog so that your readers get a little more diversity.

Share content from other bloggers on your blog. You can do this through a simple backlink, or you can create a roundup blog post. This is where you gather all blog posts of a similar topic into one of your blog posts. Make sure you include a hyperlink to each blog post!

Create a directory of your favorite blogs or blogs similar to yours on your sidebar. You can also share your favorite blogs by creating an account and following other blogs on BlogLovin’. Anyone who follows you on BlogLovin’ can see the blogs you follow as well.

Create a blogging community. You can do this through social media groups (on Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn), and you can also gather bloggers in your region to meet up in real life. You can share advice, as well as pass along information for locally-inspired posts or opportunities for local sponsorship.

Bonus: If you host your blog on WordPress, use the CommentLuv plugin. Whenever someone comments on your blog, the title of the last post they wrote on their blog will show up with their comment.

What are some ways you try to be a good blogging neighbor? You can practice here by commenting below!

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Gaining online traffic to your blog is simple to do with social media. But after you’ve started your social media accounts and gathered an initial following, you may feel that your engagement is stalling. With these WordPress plugins for social media, you can design a painless process of sharing online while also encouraging your audience to share, like, +1, and follow you!

Google Analytics – Google Analytics can give you tons of valuable data about your blog and how your audience interacts with it. One important metric is the source of your traffic; this piece of information can help you determine which of your social media platforms is the most effective, and which is the least. If most of your traffic is coming from Pinterest, you know you’re doing something good there, and you might decide to spend most of your efforts driving Pinterest traffic.

Simple Share Buttons– This WordPress app does exactly what the name claims: it adds social share buttons to all of your blog posts. It even gives your audience a share count, which can often influence them to share your content. Making it easy for your readers to share your content will increase your traffic from social media, as well as your engagement on social media.

Sociable– Sociable adds social media buttons to your blog posts. This plugin adds a similar feature as Simple Share Buttons, but the images are social media icons rather than share buttons. Still, the same call-to-action is there, motivating your readers to share your content on their social media accounts.

WP Pinner – Need a little help managing your Pinterest account? This plugin lets you schedule pins, track your Pinterest engagement, and automate pins of your WordPress posts from your admin panel. With this plugin, you can spend less time on Pinterest with the same amount of progress.

Pinterest Image Pinner – Speaking of Pinterest engagement, this plugin will raise yours by adding a simple “Pin It” button to all of your blog post images. When it comes to Pinterest, readers are more inspired by your pictures than your text. You might lose the share if you leave your Pinterest CTA to the bottom of the post. Using this plugin allows your readers to pin your image the second they see it.

Shareaholic – More social media buttons! These ones “float,” meaning that they follow the reader when he or she scrolls up and down on your webpage. Having the social share buttons immediately accessible will influence readers to share on a whim. Shareaholic also makes images shareable, gives the reader recommended and related content from your blog, and has social analytics from which you can glean valuable metrics.

Tweet Old Post– This plugin will automatically tweet links to some of your older blog posts, reviving them and bringing in new traffic. Bringing readers in to some of your old posts with absolutely no effort on your part – what’s not to love?

WordBooker – WordBooker streamlines the process of posting on Facebook. You can post content from your blog, status updates, and more into your Facebook page, any groups, or your own wall.

The Google+ Plugin – Automate your G+ posts with this WordPress plugin. It also adds a +1 button to your blog and makes the process of adding you to a circle much easier for your readers.

WP Instagram Widget – Use this plugin to display your latest Instagram pictures on your blog. Attaching Instagram to your blog will direct your readers to follow you – giving them a taste of what you post can also be an added incentive.

What WordPress plugins would you recommend for increasing your blog’s social media engagement?

Readers visit blogs for many reasons: to learn something new, to discover a new perspective, or to be entertained. But there is one reason that stays the same throughout every other motivation – they come to blogs to connect with other people. Both business blogs and personal blogs always have the prime directive of relating to the reader, because that’s what appeals to the reader the most. One good measurement of how well you are fulfilling this directive is whether or not your readers are commenting on your blog posts. Comments are a way for readers to respond to your blog post and to extend the conversation. So if your blog is struggling to get comments, look no further than this ultimate cheat sheet of 25 comment hacks:

End your blog post with a question. Questions show the reader that you are interested in their thoughts, rather than just a one-sided conversation.

Respond to the comments you receive. Even just a quick “thanks for stopping by!” shows commenters that you value their contributions.

Use a contest to motivate readers to comment. The comment can be the participant’s entry into the contest.

Ask readers to share a picture in the comments of something that relates to your post. If you’re talking about organization, ask them what their desk looks like and request proof!

Make commenting as easy as possible. This might mean that you have to endure a certain amount of spam, but that’s better than losing potential commenters partway through the process.

Write about a controversial topic. Take a stand.

Use a plugin or widget that allows readers to “upvote” or “like” other comments. This will motivate readers to read through many comments to see who they agree or disagree with, which may further inspire them to comment themselves.

Try not to delete comments, even if they are negative. You can delete spam and inappropriate material, but if someone doesn’t like what you have to say, let them express that. This will show other commenters that you are willing to listen – and it may inspire commenters who side with you to comment in opposition to the negative comment.

Be positive in your own comments, even to the negative ones. You need to put on your most diplomatic hat. For positive comments, make the commenter feel good with praise or admiration of their thoughts.

Comment on other blogs. This will gain you easy exposure, and the blog you comment on may return the favor.

When you are writing your blog post, remember your audience. Write to them. If your audience feels like you are talking to them, they will be more likely to respond.

Use the WordPress plugin “CommentLuv.” When readers comment on your blog, their latest blog post title will automatically show up with their remarks. That kind of free, easy publicity is hard for your audience to pass up.

Create a poll that readers can vote on.

Use insightful comments as a jumping off point for another blog post. Readers might have useful questions that you can answer, or new observations to flesh out your previous thoughts.

Weed out spam. Seeing spam on someone’s blog post is like seeing garbage – people stay away from it. So while you should make commenting as easy as possible, you should also use an approval system, widget, or plugin so that you can moderate comments. If you moderate comments, just be sure to approve the good ones as quickly as possible.

Open up other methods of communication. It’s easier to comment on social media or send a quick email, but having other lines of communication available eventually paves the way for readers to comment on the actual blog post.

Allow users to comment anonymously.

Create a comment policy and allow readers to access it easily. Comment policies can include what type of language is allowed, how commenters should interact with other readers, whether or not a backlink is allowed, etc. Then stick a link to that policy right next to where readers can submit comments.

Install a plugin or widget that gives commenters the option of subscribing to the comments. This feature will notify readers if any other comments are made so that they can return to add more to the conversation.

Publish a post from a guest. The other writer will publicize the blog post in different places than you usually do, inviting new traffic to your website.

Create a numbered list post and ask readers to add to it. This is an especially compelling tactic if you leave your list incomplete.

Have an approachable persona. Readers resent someone who acts like a know-it-all. A good way to accomplish this is to write about shortcomings or mistakes as well as successes and expertise.

Invite readers to share their stories and experiences. If you’re sharing a bad travelling story, ask your readers to comment with one of their own.

Ask visitors to subscribe to your blog. You can do this with an RSS feed or email newsletter(though email newsletters generally inspire more engagement). Consistent reminders of new posts will entice readers to visit more, leading to a higher probability of them commenting.

Write compelling content!

What strategy for gaining more comments would you add to the list? You know where to share it …